The McLaren F1 is considered by many to be the ultimate road car. Innovative and as close to the performance and technology of a Formula One car as modern science and technology can achieve, the F1 was designed by a tiny team who had clear, deceptively simple, objectives. The F1, launched in 1992 to international acclaim, set entirely new standards for supercar design.

A small, hand-picked team of specialists, led by McLaren’s formula one technical director Gordon Murray, with road car designer Peter Stevens, re-thought every element of road car design in order to meet their objective: to produce the world’s finest car. The result is a vehicle hailed by the industry as "a holistic design concept…breathtaking in its clarity of purpose." (Autocar magazine car of the year awards, 1992, in Nye, D, Driving Ambition, the official inside story of the Mclaren F1, 1999)

"It’s a complete piece of design," comments Stevens, "and this is because we had a very small, highly integrated team with only two principals involved. From the start, our design objectives were not obscured by spurious inputs, such as sales, purchasing or marketing requirements."

"Our objective was that the car should excel in every area, in packaging, ambience, style and all-round performance. We also required that it would not date quickly in terms of style, space efficiency or dynamic efficiency."

Murray agrees: "Neither of us wanted an immediately fashionable shape that would probably date. The way I see it is that Peter’s skill was in inventing the look of the F1 despite the restrictions I imposed…and somehow understanding what I meant when I kept bleating, ‘it has to look like a Mclaren." ( in Nye, D, Driving Ambition, the official inside story of the Mclaren F1, 1999, pp64-65)

In March 1998 the F1 shattered the official world speed record for a road car – reaching 240.1 mph. At the time of writing, that record still stands. Yet, says Stevens, "The fact that it was the fastest road car in the world was a side-effect of the design process, not the objective. Competitors have since focussed on beating the F1’s top speed, whereas our team addressed all the other qualities."

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